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Medieval Philosophy

Both the Augustinian Anselmian and the Dionysian Boethian logics have crucial places in the Itinerarium of Bonaventure. But the Dionysian or Boethian contains the Augustinian. Within a threefold ascent up the wings of a Dionysian Seraph, who finally draws us to a union described in terms taken from The Mystical Theology (Bonaventure 1956, 7.5), the first step is, in large measure, derived from the De Anima of Aristotle modified by Augustinian Illuminationism. The middle step depends upon a...

The reception of the Guide of the Perplexed (Dux neutrorum) into the Latin West in the 13th c. followed on the translation of that work into Latin in the 1240's.1 Master Peter of Ireland, Rabbi Moses ben Solomon of Salerno and Friar Niccolo' da Giovinazzo OP (Nicholas Paglia) read the Latin version together around 1250 (Peter of Ireland, Expositio et Quaestiones in Aristotelis Librum De Longtitudine et Brevitate Vitae, 7-9). Those who taught philosophy or indeed theology at European...

The character of subjectivity in pre-modern Christian theological and philosophical writings has been and remains a question.1 Partly this is owed to the anti-modern purposes of the nineteenth century revival of scholasticism in the Roman Church. In that campaign a shift from being to the subject was associated with modernity (Hankey 1998a, 141-152 Hankey 1998b, 157-188 Inglis 1998). At present we have a postmodern retrieval of the Platonic traditions which also wishes to get back beyond what...

Although commentators have largely overlooked the fact, Augustine plays fair with us from the outset. He warns us that the story of his reflections in Milan will be the story of a failure, not of a success And first, because you desired to show me how you resist the proud but give grace to the humble, and how much your mercy has been shown to men by the path of humility, because your Word was made flesh and dwelt among men, you procured for me certain books of the Platonists.2 (7.9.13) God...

1 For a history of William and his works see Roland Teske's Introduction to his translation of William of Auvergne's, The Universe of Creatures, 1998. 2 William of Auvergne 1995, De anima 2.12.82b. Divisions refer to chapter, part, and line 3 William of Auvergne, Universe Ia-Iae.9 56. Divisions refer to part, chapter, and page number 4 William of Auvergne, Trinity 11 112, Teske. Divisions refer to chapter, and page number in 5 William of Auvergne, Universe II-Iae.11 113, Teske cf. Avicenna 1983...

In leading students into the vortex of the debate which the Hebrew scriptures were to engender in philosophical circles, it has proven beneficial to pursue closely Aristotle's inquiry in the Metaphysics, showing how his attempt to respond to a legacy of questions, notably from Plato, virtually set the agenda for subsequent philosophical reflection on these comprehensive issues. Yet the encounter with Moses (as the putative author of Genesis) displays a lacuna which earnest students of Aristotle...

Aquinas' claim that God ultimately is said not to have essence according to Avicenna has textual warrant. In the medieval Latin adaptation of Avicenna's al-Ilahiyyat (Divine Science) of the Kitab al-Shifa' (Book of Healing), namely the Liberdephilosophiaprima sive scientia divina, Avicenna states, The first therefore, does not have a quiddity, rather being (esse) flows from it onto those things having quiddity. He himself is denuded being (esse exspoliatum mujarrad al-wujud), in a condition...

The preceding texts of William, then, leave us with a particular interpretive quandary. For on the one hand, there is little doubt that essentia bears a definitional sense, which is entirely inadmissible with respect to divine being, given the delimiting character of definitions. On the other hand, notwithstanding the fact that God is said to be absolutely simple in his being, it is just as certain that he has an essence, as captured in the pithy formula ens per essentiam. At this juncture,...

O'Donnell has drawn our attention to an important difference in the language used to report the two experiences. Vision is the predominant image in Milan, but hearing is predominant at Ostia (O'Donnell 1992, 3 128, 133). Now vision means understanding and hearing means faith for faith comes by hearing, knowledge by sight. But vision also means lust of the eyes. In Book 3, where Augustine describes his encounter with the Hortensius and his subsequent reading of Scripture, the repeated use of...

If my analysis of the argument from Philoponus found in Simplicius' paraphrase is correct, then Averroes seems to have managed to pinpoint the real drive behind Philoponus' argumentation. If it is possible at all for the heavens to perish or to come to a halt, then this possibility will necessarily be realized, merely on account of the inevitability of nature itself.20 As beginning follows from end, Philoponus tries to prove Biblical creation to be a natural necessity for the naturalist...

One of the few original passages in AP that can be compared to Th.A II.46-52 in terms of its complexity and length is Th.A VIII.52-68, a discussion of potency in the intellectual world. Although these two passages are far separated in the text of Th.A, a closer inspection of the text shows that they may be closely related. For the long section in mimar VIII is not, in fact, entirely independent from the Greek. Rather, it is a sort of commentary on a section of Enn IV.4, in fact on the section...

What the revelatory traditions of Bible and Qur'an alike insist upon is the distinction of creator from creation nothing uncreated can be associated with the creator, as Islam prefers to put it in celebrating the radical oneness of God tawhid . The rabbis were equally insistent, of course, in distinguishing God's revelation to Israel from the surrounding polytheisms, for the revelation of there being but one God cannot simply mean that one out of the current pantheon wins out. Once this one God...

This symmetrical interpretation of Ghazzal 's spiritual career is tempting. It provides a meaningful arc to Ghazz l 's career, assigning him a forethought that seems appropriate for a scholar and mystic of his stature. It also would provide a clear hermeneutic for our reading of the Intentions of the Philosophers, whereby we could see each word of the work as an ingenious and conscious paraphrase. By this reading Ghazz l is like a great trial lawyer, cunningly undermining his opponents, the...

Porphyry's Sentences are a collection of forty-four loosely related philosophical discourses, mostly about neo-Platonic metaphysics and psychology. Some of the Sentences are just single propositions, while others consist of longer expositions and arguments. By far the longest of all the sentences, the thirty-second, gives an account of virtue.3 Porphyry begins his account of virtue with the familiar distinction between political and contemplative virtue. Virtues are divided into two sets, one...

In his paper on Anger as a Vice A Maimonidean Critique of Aristotle's Ethics, Daniel Frank argues for Maimonides' interpretation of Aristotelian Virtue in the light of the fundamental Old Testament virtue of Humility before God (Frank, 1990). He notes that Maimonides' praise of in-irascibility betokens an un-Aristotelian conception of the self and, likewise an un-Aristotelian notion of what constitutes self-esteem (Frank, 1990, 277) and Contradiction notwithstanding, Maimonides' final word on...

What is the monad of Time itself and how does it measure the circular activity of the Soul According to Proclus, it is a nous which is unfolded and unrolled by the activity of things in Time, but primarily by the dianoetic activity of the Soul. For as Nous is to the Soul, so is Eternity to Time, and inversely, so that Time is before the Soul, just as Eternity is before Nous. And Time should be participated by the Soul, and does not participate in the Soul, just as Nous does not participate in...

The great irony of William's use of Avicenna's principle that 'nature operates in the manner of a servant' is that William so often uses this expression in his De trinitate, De universo, and De anima to correct Avicenna. His corrections cover a wide variety of topics, including the free will of rational creatures, and arguments against necessary emanation and the eternality of the world. William repeatedly uses Avicenna's nature servant principle in De universo to correct several errors in...

With respect to Avicenna's discussion of God's whatness, matters are seriously complicated. For in the very same chapter of the (or Liber de philosophia prima) where a divine quiddity (mahiyya) is disallowed, Avicenna suggests that we do not so much deny a quiddity to the first as identify that quiddity with anitas (ann yya whetherness), very much in the way that Aquinas would. In other words, God would have no quiddity or essence except his being (esse). As Avicenna writes, Therefore, the...

Bonaventure is among those medieval Christian philosophers who specifically address this Neoplatonic theory of a hierarchy of virtues. He discusses it at length in Collationes in Hexaemeron 6, where he attributes the theory to Plotinus, apparently on the authority of Macrobius Collation 6 ends with a long excerpt from Macrobius's Dream of Scipio.2 Bonaventure begins the sixth Collation as a discussion of the passage at Genesis 1 4 God saw the light that it was good and he divided the light from...

Both Muslim and western historians have aptly described Ghazzali's life as a journey. It was a physical journey, from Nishapur to Baghdad to Damascus and Mecca and eventually back to Nishapur. Yet it was also a spiritual journey, from philosophy to skepticism to mysticism. The Intentions was the starting point of this journey.27 Ghazzali himself contributed to this understanding I realized that to refute a system before understanding it and becoming acquainted with its depths is to act blindly....

In comparing Bonaventure's and Aquinas's appropriations of the Neoplatonic hierarchy of virtues, we note first that both Christian writers affirm the theory without hesitation. Even though they confront it in specifically theological contexts, both authors eagerly adopt from a pagan authority a theory bearing on the end of man. Indeed, both of them give specifically Christian emphasis to the ethical theory. Bonaventure insists that the whole of Sacred Scripture is concerned with the exemplar...

Peter Adamson King's College London works on ancient and medieval philosophy with a focus on early Arabic Philosophy. His publications include Aristotelianism and the Soul in the Arabic Plotinus and Two Early Arabic Doxographies on the Soul al-Kindi and the Arabic Plotinus. His book on the Arabic Plotinus will appear in 2002. David B.Burrell, C.S.C. University of Notre Dame works mainly on comparative issues in philosophical theology in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. His publications include...

I offer the foregoing for purposes of a contextual introduction to the explicit subject of this chapter, Maimonides' Aristotelianism. Let me be quite clear at the outset that I think there is a good sense to be given to the designation. I think we should continue to consider Maimonides an Aristotelian, whatever else he may be 6 nevertheless it behooves us to reflect upon what precisely we mean when we so describe him. First of all, and most importantly, it is not on account of any of the...

Eriugena's Periphyseon is a cosmogony before it is, and in order that it might be, the saving itinerarium of the soul. The homo in which all is created is universal. In order to see how creative subjectivity works in the journey of an individual to salvation, and in order to establish one of the elements of our comparison, we must return to the Consolation. In Boethius philosophy is a way of life which brings repose and freedom Boethius 1973, 1.4, p. 144, lines 1-4 Quisquis composite serenus...

Anselm tells us that the Proslogion was undertaken because he wanted an argument for the existence and nature of God which conformed to the divine nature. He was dissatisfied with the form of the Monologion which he characterized as a concatenation of many arguments woven together. He wanted, instead, unum argumentum which by its own simplicity and self-sufficiency imaged the divine self-sufficient unity Anselm 1946, Prooemium, p. 93, lines 5-7 . The quest for a thinking which conforms in this...

Avicenna is subject to a variety of well-known criticisms, perhaps most famously that he made of existence an accident.2 Rahman and others have, I think convincingly, argued that in fact, Avicenna does not literally treat existence as an accident.3 However, there seems to remain in both Avicenna and Aquinas scholarship the residual sense that even if he did not literally mean to make of existence an accident Avicenna does resort to invoking a misleading 'essence existence' image, if you will.4...

We have now seen the philosophical motivation for the doctrine of learned ignorance in AP. It falls into a general pattern of thought on the Adaptor's part in which he uses terms implying deprivation in order to express transcendence. Let us, then, turn to the question of the sources of the doctrine of ignorance as used by the Adaptor. I argued above that a major source for his defense of the doctrine was Aristotelian, but that Aristotle was not the entire inspiration for the passage in the...

The theme of docta ignorantia, a learned ignorance or an ignorance that transcends knowledge, is a familiar one to students of Neoplatonism. It is perhaps most closely associated with the 15th century philosopher Nicholas of Cusa, but of course appears much earlier in the Neoplatonic tradition. Among these earlier appearances is the discussion of a knowledge beyond knowledge and ignorance gnosin exo gnoseos kai agnoias in a fragment of the Commentary on the Parmenides attributed to Porphyry...

Without spending too much time rehearsing Rahman's defense of Avicenna against the reading of those who take Avicenna to have made of 'existence' an accident, it should be noted that it is a very Aristotelian defense of Avicenna. In brief, this defense has the effect of reducing Avicenna's claims about essences and existences to claims about Aristotelian ousiai the substantial existents of Aristotle's ontology.7 In effect, Rahman and others argue that Avicenna does not mean by 'existence' an...

The question arises why this suspended, constant and eternal outflow from God or, in truth, from the One, for the God of Avicenna is the God of the Neoplatonists. The answer, in short, is Providence. The One is good by nature, and so its self-realization necessarily lies in the overflowing of being to its greatest possible extent. In Plotinus and in Neoplatonist thought ever onwards we find the idea of maximal creation revitalized the principle of Plenitude in the sense Lovejoy deemed most...

The claim here is that we need more cross-pollination in the study of medieval thought than occurs at present and especially in the histories that do so much to establish and maintain the boundaries of the discipline. The present work is an attempt to move in this direction. As the Islamic philosophical tradition was the privileged site for the study and continuation of the Classical philosophical tradition in the Middle Ages, due attention is given to this tradition. An initial chapter on the...

This chapter is an examination of certain parts of the philosophy of Proclus. Its aim is to clarify in what manner Proclus is a systematic thinker. The notion of philosophical system which comes to mind from a contemporary standpoint is not the notion which Proclus had, and any interpretation of Proclus from a later standpoint is bound to fail. Proclus' notion of philosophical system, moreover, is important for the interpretation of all medieval philosophy, because the Greek Neoplatonic...

In what manner is Time a moving image of Eternity Proclus tells us that Eternity measures the intelligible, as a unity, while Time measures the things which are in becoming, as numbered. Eternity is a measure in the sense that the multiplicity of intelligibles in the autozoon are all beings, and as such they are all expressions of the unity which is the One-Being. Eternity is the principle which brings them forth into a permanent existence, and leads them back beyond itself to the One-Being,...

It was just before his departure from Baghdad that Ghazzali began the Intentions of the Philosophers,4 a book apparently composed at the request of his students. In it, Ghazzali provides a systematic exposition of the philosophical sciences with a distinctly Aristotelian angle. The Intentions, an expression of his two years of personal study,5 is a clear and careful work, reflecting the philosophical tradition of al-Farabi d. 339 950 and Ibn Sina Avicenna 428 1037 , whom Ghazzali considered the...

The consequences of this conception of dianoia for Proclus' systematic philosophy cannot be ignored. Being and thought for Proclus are dynamic, from the highest to the lowest levels of Being. His system traces the motion of a single power which begins from absolute unity and divides itself in a dynamic remaining, procession, and return. In this process Being itself is articulated, and brought to birth. Each successive level is the same as its prior insofar as it is similar and an image, but it...